The Merits Of Having A PrePaid Card
Prepaid cards look like credit and debit cards with a card number, magnetic strip and chip and offer the same ability to purchase products and services. Importantly though as they are not linked to a bank account or credit facility you can only spend the cash balance that has been preloaded onto the card. We now take a closer look at what prepaid cards are in this article.
Prepaid cards enable you to load the card with cash, and then use it to withdraw cash or make purchases. Once you use all the cash loaded and the balance reaches zero, you can’t use the card to withdraw any more money or pay for any more goods. This means there is no risk of running into debt – there is no credit or overdraft facility and you can’t spend more cash than you have loaded on the card.
This means that prepaid cards work rather like pay as you go mobile phones. You can only use the minutes or texts that you’ve bought with a PAYG phone card and the same applies to a prepaid card. Once the uploaded money has been spent, that’s it – it is useless until you load more cash onto the card.
Only being able to spend the money that is actually loaded onto a prepaid card brings some significant benefits, particularly for those with poor credit histories. As there is no credit involved, there is no credit check made by the company when you buy the prepaid card. You buy the card, load it up with some cash and can use it from thereon. This makes prepaid cards very suitable for those with impaired credit histories or for people such as students who need to control their spending.
Purchasing a prepaid card is easy. They are not expensive to buy and are available at many high street shops, online and at Post Offices. It is interesting that some of the leading prepaid card suppliers are not traditional banks or lenders. O2, for example, offer the very popular prepaid Visa and Load & Go cards. they are using the technology that powers their PAYG phone cards to provide these other prepaid card services.
You can preload most cards at ATMs, over the Internet, via text messaging or by phoning your provider. Generally prepaid cards are issued under the Visa, MasterCard, Visa Electron or Maestro brand, established and widely accepted brands.
If you wish to find out more on the benefits of prepaid cards then click this link.